Gus's Store now D&D Country Market

It was, for many years, the unofficial neighborhood center of town.

Gus’s Country Store, on Route 106 just off the Route 140 intersection, served as a combination grocery store, coffee shop, gas station and rumor mill.

Then several years ago the business seemed to run into hard times. About a year ago, the store was scheduled to be sold at auction.

That’s when Mark Dickson and Russ Dumais got involved.

The two men, who already owned and operated the Airport Country Store in Gilford, saw great potential in the local establishment and purchased it shortly before the scheduled auction. Dickson won’t be specific about what he and his partner paid, but he said stores like theirs normally cost in the range of about $1 million.

Dickson and Dumais turned Gus’s County Store into “D&D Country Market” and immediately began remodeling the place.

“First, there was no gas at the time,” Dickson said. “So we had all new equipment installed underground and got that going.”

They did a major cleaning job, removed some coolers to give the store more floor room and improved the indoor lighting.

The partners set about restructuring the store into a more contemporary convenience store.

“It was set up as grocery store and you just can’t compete with big chains anymore,” Dickson said. “So we still have just as much of a selection, but we have less inventory.”

They added hardware goods and camping supplies for the RVers, “especially during the NASCAR race season,” Dickson said.

“Then we enlarged the parking lot by making the island (next to the state road) smaller,” he noted.

Recently they redid the building’s roof, which improved the store’s appearance and solved some structural problems.

And they’re looking at creating a whole new deli section.

In all, the partners are investing about $100,000 worth of improvements to the property.

Dickson said he’s pleased with how the store is doing and is looking at increased improvements as he adjusts liquor prices to be more competitive.

“And we bought it almost exactly one year ago,” he said. “It was November 11, 2003.”